“What does this sell by date mean on my jug of milk? Can I still use it in my breakfast cereal, or is it past the point of no return?”
The Bottom Line
Manufacturers want grocers to turn their product. Grocers don’t want returns or complaints on food that’s lost some of its “ooomf”. Consumers want some guidance on how long their food will be good. All of these are reasons for offering food dates, but it may not be a reason for throwing food away.
According to USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (1):
A “Best if Used By/Before” date indicates when a product will be of best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.
A “Sell-By” date tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management. It is not a safety date.
A “Use-By” date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. It is not a safety date except for when used on infant formula
A “Freeze-By” date indicates when a product should be frozen to maintain peak quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.
Did you notice a common theme in those definitions? “It is not a safety date…”
So, your best-by date on canned green beans? If you’re a year past your date and there’s no damage to your can, your beans may just taste a little less green-beany.
And since a sell-by date is all about inventory management for a grocery store and not your fridge, you may be able to eat those eggs for a month or so after their sell-by date.
Just because the best by date is coming up doesn’t mean you need to toss that milk that’s two days past or bin the chunk of cheese that’s been on the bottom shelf for a couple of weeks. These items and many others can still be used up to a week or more past the sell-by/best-by/use-by date. What many people don’t know is that the best by or use by date isn’t the definitive food safety date for a product (except for baby formula). Most dairy is good up to seven days past the printed date on the carton, eggs can last up to a month in your refrigerator, and most cheeses are good two weeks or more beyond the best by. In addition to refrigerated goods, many canned and dry storage foods can last weeks, if not up to a year beyond their printed date. And if you can’t eat it now, freeze it!
5 Tips for Food Rescue At Home
Forty percent of all food produced in the US doesn’t ever get eaten. Nearly half of that food waste happens at the consumer level.[1] That’s right, almost half of all food waste happens at home, but you can change that statistic! With these five easy tips, you can cut down your food waste by up to 200lbs and save money while saving your food:
Plan your meals ahead of time: Before leaving for the store, make a rough plan of what you want to cook before your next grocery run and buy only what you need to make those meals.
Make a grocery list and stick to it: While it is tempting to buy bulk or jump on a sale for obscure produce, make sure it is something that you can incorporate into your usual meal plan.
Store your food properly: Oftentimes, we find ourselves peering into the depths of a refrigerator at a tupperware long-forgotten on the bottom shelf and wondering, “what was that?” By checking your fridge daily and making sure produce isn’t kept in the coldest spots and leftovers are properly sealed, you can stop playing “what was that,” and fully enjoy the meals you create.
What’s for lunch? Leftovers!
Plan to over-prepare or avoid it altogether:The Cornell Food and Brand lab found that since 2006, serving sizes in the classic cookbook The Joy of Cooking has increased by 36 percent.[2] This increased portion size also contributes to an increase in wasted leftovers. Preparing more food at once certainly has its place. It can be good for the budget AND good for reducing food waste to make more at once. But you have to plan to store it and eat it. Freeze your leftovers to give you a little more time to eat them.
Don’t neglect leftovers: Just like Mom and Dad told you growing up, clean your plate. Instead of ordering in, make sure your fridge isn’t cluttered with the fajitas you made on Tuesday, or the soup you had last Friday.
Read More About Food Safety and Food Waste
Looking for more detailed information on food safety and date guidelines? See these foodsafety.gov safe cold food storage guidelines.
Want to know more about the problem of food waste and how it happens across the entire food system? Check out this great summary by Foodprint.org.
It’s not too late, you can still order your recipe book and access to this awesome week of events!
TUESDAY AM: Welcome!
Get a digital copy of the recipe book delivered to your inbox…the printed copy is on the way!
TUESDAY PM: Food Waste 101
Food rescue starts at home! To do that, you have to understand the basics. How can you prevent food waste, what can you still eat and when, and if you can’t eat it, what are some alternatives to throwing it away? Throughout the week we’ll help you come up with creative ways to use the food you have. Our handy guidelines will prepare you to get cooking. Kick off the week by taking the Fridge Food Check – Stop Food Waste! Share your experience with us on Facebook or via email and we’ll enter you to win a gift card or gift from one of our sponsors.
Mix up a food rescued lunch with Emily, hear from a route volunteer about our unique food rescue model, and learn how Table to Table delivers 2.5 million pounds of food to our neighbors for just 15 cents a pound! Maybe by the end you’ll want to adopt your very own local food rescue route! We have many to choose from and they all play a critical part in addressing hunger in our community.
THURSDAY: Rescue Your Fridge Food
Got milk? Got old milk?! How about some soft apples or limp celery in your refrigerator? Check your email on Thursday and learn ways to clear out your refrigerator without throwing food away! Just like leftovers, many of those less-than-entirely fresh foods can be utilized in tasty and nutritious meals for yourself and your family.
FRIDAY: Cooking with our Community Partners
Ever wonder what happens to those thousands of pounds of food we rescue each week? Who better to share how to use rescued food than the chefs who do it every day to feed hundreds of our neighbors. Tune in on Friday when we’ll be joined by local chefs in the kitchens of the Salvation Army and Shelter House as they prepare nutritious meals for their guests using food rescued by Table To Table that same day.
All Week Long
Wildwoods Farms, Local Harvest, and Trader Joe’s
Don’t miss your chance to win a July CSA share from Wildwoods Farm, a garden starter kit from Local Harvest CSA or a bundle of goodies ($150 Value) from Trader Joe’s!
Bonus Recipes
Recipe book holders will receive free bonus recipes! Local professional chefs aren’t the only ones that can cook and bake, as our very own Table to Table staff and volunteers share their favorite old family recipes and tips for home-cooked meals.
Best of all, throughout the week you can “Ask Emily” as our resident expert offers creative and tasty ways to prepare meals at home using leftovers, food found on your shelves and rescued from your refrigerator. Trust me, you will be glad you “asked Emily!”
What happens to a school group’s snack fund when school is canceled? It goes to providing snacks for the community! The Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program (NWP) donated $200 from their snack fund to help Table to Table rescue food that can provide vital support to community members all over Johnson County. This donation came from the group’s belief that “A good meal, shared with others, is emotionally nourishing, too, and since we can’t gather right now, we wanted to find the best way to pass that spirit along!”
The University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program’s 2019 graduates celebrate during a garden party hosted by faculty member Bonnie Sunstein at her home in Iowa City, Iowa. ALL rights available to NWP 2019 class.
The NWP students take up a collection at the beginning of each school year to establish their snack fund. This money typically goes towards keeping their snack jar filled through the year and catering a graduation celebration in the spring, but due to the physical closure of the University of Iowa campus, they were left with the decision to carry over the funds or put them to use helping the community. They chose the latter, much to our delight!
A local seventh-grader, Izzy Mooney, recently reached out to Table to Table about a research project she conducted to better understand how different nonprofits in the Iowa City area were responding to the Covid-19 crisis. Izzy eagerly took up this project initiated by her parents to keep her engaged and learning while out of school. She narrowed in on how several local organizations were addressing hunger relief and put together a report. After presenting her findings to her parents, she recommended the family make a donation to Table to Table to support our work during this crisis.
She was excited to share her research with us, and was surprised about how much we do to rescue food:
“I learned so much about food pantries…[I can’t believe] you can rescue six cans of food for $0.96.”
Since her dad works at Microsoft, her donation will be matched by Microsoft’s employee match outreach program in the mission of supporting nonprofits around the globe.
We want to thank Izzy and the Mooney family for demonstrating the importance of civic engagement, especially during times of crisis. Their donation will deliver nearly 2,000 pounds of food to our neighbors in need.
Recipes to the Rescue is a reimagining of our traditional annual dinner, an opportunity to come together and support Table to Table while staying at home. Our restaurant partners, who have graciously donated food for our annual dinner year after year, are instead offering their favorite recipes for you to try at home. Don’t miss out on this unique compilation of delicious recipes. You can order here.
While their dining rooms may be closed, several of our restaurant sponsors are still cooking! If you’ve been jonesing for a hot pizza pie from Pagliai’s or maybe your favorite BBQ sandwich from Mosley’s, these and several other restaurant partners are open and would be happy to whip something up for you. Check out their info below and visit their websites for current hours. Order take out now and then join us in a couple of weeks to try your hand at recipes from home.
Big Grove Brewery
We’re thankful that Big Grove has multiple locations, in Solon and Iowa City, because everybody should be able to savor their brews, tasty meals and cookies right now. Usher in the warm weather with a cool Summer Jam. Ahh…
Soups, sandwiches, salads just taste better when you let NoDo make it for you. If you ask our program manager Emily, she would eat a bowl full of the haba-aoli – so you should definitely try that!
We’ve collected 70,000 pounds of food so far in April.
Jill, a staff member from Aero Rental and Party Shoppe, joins us multiple times a week to sanitize and do last minute food rescue.
We want to express our gratitude for the incredible community response during this time of need. After restarting our operation on March 26, through the week of April 3 we successfully rescued more than 36,000 pounds of food, and during the week of April 6 we rescued 34,000 pounds. This is 80% of what we normally rescue in a week, a tremendous accomplishment given that we rescued this food in fewer than half the number of regular food rescue routes. This has been made possible thanks to numerous new volunteer applications and the support of local organizations and businesses.
We’ve onboarded many new community volunteers. City, County, and local business volunteers have helped see us through the most challenging weeks of food rescue in recent memory.
The City of Iowa City Housing Inspection Department dedicated two staff to routes each weekday.
Johnson County SEATS drivers are on call to fill in on routes if we are unable at the last minute to fill a shift.
Aero Rental and Party Shoppe is keeping four of their staff employed by lending them to us as food rescue and facility volunteers.
Bur Oak Land Trust has loaned two AmeriCorps members each day for food rescue routes until at least the end of April.
Bur Oak AmeriCorps members get ready for one of their first routes.
We want to thank all of you for adapting with us as we respond to the ever-changing world crisis right here in our community. Your outreach and support through this time are ensuring Table to Table runs full steam ahead and keeps our neighbors fed.
In addition to our regular food rescue operation, Table to Table has joined a partnership to assist with Food with Love, a community initiative to provide meals for area hunger relief organizations while supporting local restaurants and their staff. Food with Love ensures relief organizations such as Shelter House, The Salvation Army, and Domestic Violence Intervention Program can continue providing hot meals.
The program currently serves the community Tuesday through Friday. Table to Table provides lunch deliveries and CommonTable covers dinner deliveries. Restaurant partners DeLuxe Cakes & Pastries, Big Grove Brewery, Pullman Bar & Diner, and St. Burch Tavern have been quick to respond to feedback for ease of no-contact pickups and labeling meals so recipient locations can efficiently receive the food they need and drivers do not need to enter any of the sites.
At the beginning of March, Table to Table experienced a volunteer shortage unlike any we’ve ever had. As you’re probably aware, routes are supported almost entirely by volunteers who serve 2-3 hours each week for more than 50 food rescue deliveries. You may not know that T2T also relied heavily on volunteers for a variety of other important operational tasks including preparing vehicles for routes, maintaining and sanitizing the facility, entering and analyzing food rescue data, tracking our fleet maintenance and billing, and more. Without those volunteers, many of those tasks beyond sanitation and preparing for routes ground to a halt.
Lucky for us, AmeriCorps members whose roles have been suspended with other projects reached out to us looking for volunteer opportunities. Reading Corps AmeriCorps member, Andrew, and Green Iowa AmeriCorps member, Nick, have joined us nearly full time to support Table to Table operations.
Nick Simone
Nick is a logistics coordinator for Green Iowa AmeriCorps Energy & Community program where he conducted residential energy audits in Iowa City. Energy audits help homeowners identify sources of air leakage and energy inefficiencies within their home. Fixing these issues saves money and energy while also increasing the healthiness of a home. Nick graduated from the University of Iowa in 2019 with a BBA in Marketing and a Certificate of Sustainability.
With a background in sustainability, Nick has been an excellent addition to the team and has taken on daily program coordination tasks in addition to coordinating food rescue data. Tracking this data in a timely and accurate manner helps ensure we know what food is coming in and that each organization is getting what they need.
In just under a week, it’s clear Nick is already dedicated to the T2T mission,
“I didn’t realize how much food Table to Table is able to redistribute to people in need. Being an advocate of sustainability, it makes me happy to see food that would otherwise be thrown away being used for its purpose, eating.”
Andrew Winkers
Andrew is part of the AmeriCorps ReadingCorps team with the Iowa City School District. The ReadingCorps program serves K-3rd grade students who are on the border between at risk and proficient in reading. They utilize several interventions that range from practicing letter sounds to reading one-page stories as “newscasters” to encourage conversational reading and improve overall comprehension skills. Andrew graduated with a BA in English and a certificate in writing from the University of Iowa and its Magid Center in 2019.
Andrew joined us at the beginning of April to help coordinate our work with the Food with Love project, help with daily program coordination, and to write blog posts and e-news articles about our work during this crisis.
Andrew has found being a part of the Table to Table team has been awe-inspiring and a jovial atmosphere,
“I am in awe of the quantity of food that Table to Table is able to rescue and redistribute in Johnson county. I enjoy the camaraderie among the volunteers and staff and the overall positivity that is cultivated through this organization.”
Ellie Paxson
Ellie is currently an AmeriCorps member with Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity. She is working with Table to Table during this time as a way to support the vital social services in our community. She’s a whiz at data entry and is helping recruit and record new volunteers as well as process financial donations.
Ellie graduated from the University of Iowa in May of 2019 with a BS in Psychology and a minor in Human Relations.
She is excited to get the chance to work for another non-profit in Iowa City. She says,
“This community is so supportive and involved, especially during times of crisis.”
Yusef Abuissa
Yusef is serving in the Energy and Community branch of the Green Iowa AmeriCorps. His job is to be knowledgeable in home science and lead home energy audits/weatherizations. He conducts safety tests and air leak tests to measure how much air leaks into a home before letting homeowners know how leaky their home is, and he recommends air sealing processes.
As an undergrad at the University of Iowa, Yusef recently swapped majors from Biology to Environmental Policy and Planning and plans to go back to school after finishing his year of service with AmeriCorps.
As a recent addition to Table to Table, Yusef’s dedication to rescuing food is inspiring, and he illustrates a common awe in his first reactions to our program’s operation,
“What I enjoy most is the satisfaction of supporting an organization that does something incredible. The food waste built into our society is immensely off-putting to me, and the fact that it can then go to help people and families who can’t afford food while maintaining their dignity puts a smile on my face.”
Table to Table rescues and delivers half the food distributed to hungry people in Johnson County.
We are requesting financial donations and seeking temporary volunteers not in high-risk groups for Covid-19 to continue our local food rescue operations. As of Monday, March 23, we have temporarily paused operations for the first time in 24 years to restructure and respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. We must adjust to account for a temporary critical reduction in volunteers that transport the food to agencies throughout Johnson County that feed the hungry. We plan to re-initiate food rescue operations on Thursday, March 26, 2020.
As a volunteer-based operation, we are experiencing a critical shortage of volunteers, which contribute the hours that would otherwise have to be done by nine full-time staff. This current crisis has hit our volunteer force hard. On Friday, March 20, volunteers at high risk for hospitalization or death as a result of Covid-19 infection were asked to temporarily suspend their volunteer service. Due to the vast majority of our volunteers being older individuals and college students, 80% of our volunteers are no longer available to transport food to the hungry in Johnson County.
Our volunteers collect and redistribute 40,000 pounds of food each week, and this food is needed now more than ever. The food insecurity landscape in Johnson County is changing rapidly, with neighbors needing access to basic necessities as they experience unpaid time off or closures of other social services. As our partner organizations’ resources become scarce and the need continues to grow, they will need these 40,000 pounds of food per week more than ever.
We need community support to bring operations back up to full capacity. Financial donations are critical at this time, as we will likely need to hire a temporary staff driver to make up for the significant volunteer force deficit. To donate, please visit www.table2table.org/donateonline.
Community members who do not fall into high-risk groups for Covid-19, have not traveled recently or come into contact with individuals infected with the virus, and who are feeling well and Covid-19 symptom-free are encouraged to lend a hand with food rescue route volunteering. To volunteer, contact us at volunteer@table2table.org or call (319) 337-3400.
Food rescue starts at home! Before you start you have to understand 
